Director, Candidate & Diplomate Experiences

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Director, Candidate & Diplomate Experiences

THIS IS A HYBRID POSITION REQUIRING 2 DAYS PER WEEK (TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY) EACH WEEK IN-PERSON AT OUR OFFICE LOCATED IN THE STREETERVILLE/MAG MILE AREA OF DOWNTOWN CHICAGO, IL.

JOB SUMMARY

The Director, Candidate and Diplomate Experiences serves in two complementary capacities within Certifying Board Services. As the Board Lead for assigned AOA specialty certifying boards, the Director owns the boards’ operational outcomes, commitments, and service needs and serves as the primary staff liaison to board and committee leaders. As the leader of the shared Specialist function, the Director owns the function’s performance, including assignment and prioritization of work, workload and capacity management, service consistency, quality oversight, staff development, and escalation.

The Director leads a team of four to six Specialists who provide pooled support across certifying boards, including candidate and diplomate phone support, inbound email correspondence, case and ticket management, and other assigned certification services. The Director establishes clear requirements and service expectations, translates board and stakeholder needs into actionable assignments, and ensures that work is delivered accurately, consistently, and on time while maintaining appropriate governance, policy, and operational boundaries.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Team Leadership and Talent Development

• Own the performance of the shared Specialist function, including timely service, appropriate assignments, workload management, consistent processes, quality oversight, staff capability, and escalation.
• Lead, coach, develop, and retain a high-performing team of four to six Specialists; establish performance goals, conduct evaluations, and provide ongoing feedback and professional development.
• Monitor workload, deadlines, progress, quality, and service consistency; remove barriers and communicate delays, risks, constraints, and tradeoffs to affected Board Leads and stakeholders.
• Establish standard operating processes, assignment expectations, cross-training, knowledge-sharing practices, and quality controls that support consistent service across certification programs.
• Resolve routine assignment and resource conflicts and elevate priority or capacity conflicts that cannot be resolved within the function.
• Foster accountability, collaboration, professionalism, inclusiveness, innovation, continuous learning, and a candidate- and diplomate-centered service culture.

Customer Service and Candidate Experience Leadership

• Lead and oversee certification support services for candidates, diplomates, board members, and other stakeholders, including phone, email, case, and ticket-based support.
• Establish and monitor service standards, response expectations, quality measures, workload indicators, and stakeholder satisfaction measures.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for complex, sensitive, or high-profile candidate and diplomate concerns, ensuring fair, timely, consistent, and well-documented resolution within applicable policy.
• Identify service patterns, recurring issues, risks, and barriers and implement solutions that improve responsiveness, communication, efficiency, and the overall stakeholder experience.

Certification Program Management

• Serve as the accountable Board Lead and primary staff liaison for assigned specialty certifying boards, committees, and physician leaders.
• Own the operational outcomes, commitments, and service needs associated with assigned boards, while ensuring work supports each board’s intended purpose and remains within applicable policy and governance boundaries.
• Define board-related needs, desired outcomes, substantive requirements, urgency, dependencies, risks, stakeholder expectations, and acceptance criteria for assigned work.
• Direct operational activities supporting initial certification, continuous certification, recertification, and assessment programs for assigned boards.
• Coordinate examination administration activities, including scheduling, examiner participation, committee support, credentialing reviews, and candidate communications.
• Partner with psychometric and assessment staff to support examination development, maintenance, validation, administration, and continuous improvement.
• Monitor certification program performance and recommend improvements that advance efficiency, quality, fairness, compliance, and candidate satisfaction.
• Assist with annual planning, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting for assigned boards.

Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration

• Build effective relationships with physician leaders, diplomates, candidates, volunteers, vendors, Board Leads, Specialists, and internal business partners.
• Collaborate with Certification Directors and Managers, Assessment Services, Operations, Membership, Information Technology, Marketing and Communications, and other AOA departments to achieve organizational objectives.
• Facilitate direct communication between Board Leads and Specialists when useful, while ensuring assignment or priority changes are coordinated through this role.
• Clarify requests with Board Leads, facilitate communication and handoffs, and ensure complete background information, requirements, deadlines, dependencies, and risks are available before work begins.
• Communicate complex certification requirements, policies, decisions, and operational considerations clearly and effectively to diverse audiences.
• Represent Certifying Board Services on internal committees, workgroups, and special projects as assigned.

Operational Excellence

• Analyze operational, service, ticketing, and certification-related data to identify trends, risks, capacity needs, and opportunities for improvement.
• Develop and implement process enhancements that standardize and streamline operations, strengthen quality controls, and improve service outcomes.
• Monitor key performance indicators and prepare clear reports for senior leadership and board stakeholders.
• Collaborate across departments to improve workflows, systems integration, communication practices, and stakeholder outcomes.
• Support implementation and effective adoption of technology solutions, automation, CRM functionality, ticketing systems, and reporting tools.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Education:

• Master's preferred

Experience

• Seven to ten years of progressively responsible experience in certification, credentialing, association management, healthcare administration, customer or member services, or a related field.
• Experience serving as a staff liaison to boards, committees, or volunteer leadership groups.
• Experience managing customer service, member services, call center, case management, or stakeholder support teams.
• Demonstrated experience supervising, coaching, and developing staff in a service-oriented or matrixed environment.

Special Skills

• Strong knowledge of certification, credentialing, governance, association management, or comparable regulated program operations.
• Excellent customer service, written and verbal communication, relationship management, facilitation, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Proven leadership, coaching, team building, workload management, prioritization, and talent development abilities.
• Strong analytical, organizational, judgment, problem-solving, and escalation-management skills.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, identify and communicate tradeoffs, and make sound decisions within defined policy and authority boundaries.
• Proficiency with CRM, association management, call center management/case or ticketing, reporting
• Microsoft Office applications.
• Ability to communicate complex requirements and operational issues clearly to physician leaders, staff, candidates, diplomates, and other stakeholders.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT

This is a hybrid position requiring in-office work at the AOA Chicago office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with the remainder of the workweek eligible for remote work.

Occasional travel and extended hours (evening or weekend work) may be required.

Salary Range: $95,000 - $105,000 Annually

The AOA offers the following benefits:

Medical, Dental, Vision, FSA/HSA, Life and AD&D, Long and Short-term Disability, Commuter Benefits, 401(k) with match

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

American Osteopathic Association is unable to sponsor work visas at this time.